


Jump Tracks

by iluvaqt



Series: DC & Marvel: Nightingale [1]
Category: Smallville, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 12:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4745945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvaqt/pseuds/iluvaqt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chloe finds it refreshing that she gets to see behind the masks people wear. In other words, she loves her job.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jump Tracks

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything. References to DC characters, Marvel characters and a mix-mash of different storylines all thrown in. Canon divergent.
> 
> Set years after Smallville Season 7.01 "Bizarro"
> 
> For Rocio "Purple_Moon123" who blackmailed me with double Chris and Chloe/Steve. Like I needed the distraction. This new crossover series is the result.

 

::: ::: :::

If you had told her seven years ago - while she’d been burning the midnight oil in her dorm room busily earning enough points to graduate between interning in the Planet basement and hacking part time for your intergalactic best friend - that she’d end up here working as a spy - she would have wondered whether her greatest fear of losing her mind like her mother, had finally happened and she that had imagined your bizarre and unfathomable claim. It was a series of seemingly random events, related only by a single fixture in her life -- that she would never reveal even under threat of torture and death -- that was the key.

For his part, Clark wished he could turn back time without the risk of a butterfly effect and change what had caused her to be faced with the ultimatum to work for S.H.I.E.L.D or spend the rest of her life running, but he couldn’t change the fact that his home planet had exploded and sent radioactive material hurtling to Earth, any more than she had chosen to be meteor infected and spend her days illegally accessing databases she shouldn’t for information they had desperately needed.

Agent Coulson and Agent May had shown up with a group of not so inconspicuously dressed undercover operatives for back up, as she’d picked up her morning coffee one morning from her favorite vendor in Metropolis.

::: ::: :::

“Chloe Sullivan, I’m Agent Coulson. I work with S.H.I.E.L.D. You’ve been on our radar for awhile for suspicious online activity, but it’s a recent trip to a morgue that’s played the catalyst for our visit today. We understand that these powers you have might be frightening, but we can help.”

“And if I say I’m not scared, and that I have friends who can help me already?”

Phil inclined his head discreetly signalling his men. “I’m sorry I’d have to say, I think you’re bluffing. You’re terrified, and you really don’t have much choice. We can’t allow you to continue unchecked. And we can hold you with what we have indefinitely. In the eyes of the WSC, people with your abilities and skills are a clear threat to national security.”

Chloe tired not to reveal how nervous she was, but she could tell that for a veteran agent like Coulson, he probably read through her facade like child’s play.

“My uncle is a four-star general and I’ve had to stand up to both Luthors who’ve both wanted me dead or in a lab at some point. I was in witness protection at 17. I know how to disappear.”

“Chloe, I promise you, we will help you. And if you work with us, you can prove to my superiors that you’re exactly who I think you are.”

“And who is that?” she asked dubiously, but curious over his confident, calm demeanour and the vibe of frank honesty she felt from him.

“Someone who values justice and genuinely wants to do the right thing.”

::: ::: :::

That day marked the beginning of a new life. And today was the anniversary of that re-birth and it was only fitting she was attempting something new. She was about to take her first HALO jump and she was trying her best not to laugh at the antics of her best friend of the past five and a half years, who was normally this bad-ass, ultra-composed, hard-nosed agent, but right now she was white as a sheet and clinging to the cargo netting in an iron-fisted grip. Maria ‘Commander’ Hill, was afraid of heights.

Of course Maria wasn’t the only friend she’d ever had that suffered from that phobia. Clark could fly these days, not just as Kal but as the super-durable-high-tech-weave blue uniformed, cape-toting hero and protector of Metropolis. Superman they were calling him. Chloe grinned, the uniform was awful but no one could wear it better. Anyone else with powers like his would be an ego maniac on a god-trip but Clark was the most humble, well meaning guy she had ever met.

Her innately curious, tenacious character, her background in investigative journalism and wealth of experience uncovering secrets, made her uniquely qualified and a natural hand at espionage. While she wasn’t as enigmatic or as lethal as Agent Romanoff, she quickly came to the attention of Director Fury, who had tried repeatedly over the years to steal her away from Agent Coulson's team. The firm friendship she’d developed with Maria while she’d been training at the Academy made her position of choosing who to work for even more difficult. In the end, she chose to only work for Fury, if Maria was her co-agent on the job, or the one giving the orders.

They were doing a stealth reconnaissance mission in Wakanda. Attempts to invite representatives to the UN Assembly and open diplomatic relations had been respectfully declined. And they had not so subtly added an addendum that outsiders were unwelcome and closed their borders.

As a result of their resistance to join the UN subcommittee initiative for the pursuit of planetary protection, The World Security Council had sanctioned aerial and satellite surveillance. Thermal imaging had revealed that Wakanda had advanced weapons tech, the likes of which were at odds with their simplistic tribal culture. So Fury had been given orders to investigate further.

Chloe had studied the language and the culture and while she had no chance of blending in, she hope that on the off chance they were caught snooping, that she’d be able to hold them off from shooting first and ask questions later mentality.

“Hill, if we don’t jump in the next ten seconds, we will miss our landing zone. Move your ass.”

Maria glared at her, doing her best intimidation face, jaw squared and eyes narrowed. “Not a word of this to anyone.”

Chloe zipped her lips with a half smirk, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Honestly, how’d you pass the field exams? I recall at least one parachute jump and two altitude tests.”

“This stays between us?” Maria asked gulping, coaching herself along by putting her ‘Commander’ face on, to let go of the cargo netting and moving closer to the edge of the open tail ramp.

Chloe nodded and gave her a serious look. “Hand on heart, and you know how long this thing’s going to keep beating.”

Maria gave her a narrow eyed piercing chastening look. One that she gave her friend every time she made light of her metahuman ability, due to her exposure to a unique radiation signature as a child. “I took a Xanax before we prepped for flight.”

Chloe’s mouth dropped open and Maria smirked at managing to shock her friend before taking a running jump out of the plane.

Shaking her head, Chloe cracked a smile and rechecked her night vision helmet before making the running jump herself.

::: ::: :::

As she felt the wind rushing past, whipping her hair back and almost freezing the air in her lungs from the altitude, she thought on the time she’d seen a man jump out of a plane sans parachute, with no expectation at all that anyone should catch him.

Over the six weeks they had worked together, and all she'd read about him, it still hadn't prepared her to witness what he was capable of. He was seemingly fearless. Then again he was Captain friggin America. He had told her he was a paratrooper during the war but barely a crash course in modern equipment and he was at ease doing a Rocky the Flying Squirrel impersonation. Chloe had to muse that it must come from years of training and trusting his body’s skill. He appeared fearless because he knew what he was capable of and he knew how to prepare, what action to take because he was known as the man with a plan. There was something about Steve Rogers that most people didn’t know, like a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D recruits she’d assessed over the years, he was afraid of the dark.

Chloe didn’t think she was as hard as Maria, but her passing exams for agent status weren’t easy and she pushed her recruits to their limits. They would be challenged to extremes in the field. If they couldn’t cut it in a controlled scenario, then they had no business having to make seemingly impossible calls with lives in the balance out in the field.

Her approach had earned her the nickname, Special Agent ‘Sully’ Sullivan. When she’d heard the whispers, the name had given her pause, it didn’t sound disrespectful or disparaging at first. But up against handles like Meteor Freak and Sticky Nose Sullivan, Sully didn’t even make her think twice. Mad Dog Lane was a cringe worthy moniker but her cousin really did earn her reputation as a bit of a pitbull. When she learned the origin behind the nickname, she could only shake her head in disbelief over how easily legends could be born.

The sensory deprivation task. Recruits often commented on her youthful appearance, making disbelieving remarks about how she could possibly have the experience to train anyone. Over the months she had them, they certainly changed their tune. She only trained one group of recruits a year. And every candidate she had passed had gone on to become top agents in the field. Team leaders. She was quite proud of her work. And it seemed her dedication to high standards in grit/determination, assertive thinking, teamwork, morals and intuitive understand of a mission's objective, earned her a reputation of her own. She was apparently easy on the eyes, cute was the word mostly used. Probably due to the fact that she’d never stretched beyond her 5’5 stature and going around in combat boots most of the time as opposed to the four-inch heels she used to favor didn’t help. But when it came to those who knew her, Chloe had become respectfully and fondly called Sully. She might appear sweet and cuddly, but she was also the monster in the dark. Her reputation had spread like wildfire after she’d caused a 6’4 wall of a recruit to knock himself unconscious during her ghosting exercise.

The room was filled with tear gas, and random flash bangs would cut through the dark. One by one the recruits were tagged and their weapons would lock up - hence ending their involvement in the exercise. The aim of the exercise was to get your coloured lantern and get to the clearing ‘alive’. There were traps of obstacles, trip wires and pits. The warehouse was set up like a dense forest. They didn’t know it going in, but there was only one enemy. Moving through the field, and her constant movement, it would seem like there were many enemies.

To be fair, if they managed to tag her, her gun shut down for five minutes. More than a couple recruits had made it through the course that way, not knowing their luck at having someone in the group who could stalk and hit a fast moving target.

She lived to regret letting Steve bring his shield. He’d done a lot of damage to her course, and the bruising to her chest and the fractured ribs had hurt like the dickens until they’d healed up. The phantom pains meant she’d had trouble raising her elbows more than 45 degree angles for a week. He never had any clue that there was only one assailant in the entire course, or maybe he did and he just like showing up her reputation for having the fourth best rank on campus.

Of course prior to his arrival in her Academy office, Chloe had let Fury know how ridiculous she thought her assessing Captain Rogers - war hero, super soldier extraordinaire - but the one-eyed stare the man had given her had her snapping to and giving him a nod and answer of, "Yes, boss."

Nick Fury hated snark - of course that rhymed with Stark and could explain a lot, her brain helpfully quipped - of any kind but from day one she hadn't given these guys her back. They'd cornered her and Chloe was not one to roll over. Sullivan-Lanes were fighters and she wanted S.H.I.E.L.D to prove their so called 'good intentions'. They had to earn her trust.

Coulson understood that, her respected her more for it. It's why she wouldn't jump ship on him. After she'd graduated the Academy, she had joined his team and saved Agent May's life when she'd been shot in the back on a mission gone totally FUBAR. The shot that went clean through her heart. Phil had seen her power first hand and after that, he'd deleted her file. The only records on the real Chloe Sullivan were in a biologically encrypted digital lock-box that Coulson kept hidden. He had her back and for that she would always have his. The only other person who knew the full extend of what she could do, were Maria and Clark. She had no intention of letting the world know what she could do. Not only was she very conscious of the ways it could be exploited, and the danger it would put her loved ones in, she had no interest in being dissected in a lab in the hopes that they could find the secret to eternal youth or a cure for death.

She touched down a short distance from Maria, and hurriedly rolled her chute so they could hide their gear.

“Took your time,” Maria joked.

Chloe elbowed her playfully as she passed. “I’ve got the better night vision. Follow my lead.”

“Whatever, Nightingale,” she said with a soft snort of disagreement. “If I sprain my ankle, I expect a patch job.”

Chloe shook her head. Maria would grit her teeth and bear any injury rather than let Chloe take it from her. When her friend had dislocated both her thumbs and suffered a serious concussion when Loki had sunken part of the Mojave Desert facility into a chasm, she wouldn’t let Chloe heal it. The alternative meant not being able to type or hold her SIG properly for six weeks, not to mention the hindrance to everyday tasks, but Maria hadn’t budged on the issue. She was very glad to have found loyal and protective friends in her new life. Personally, she preferred the nickname Nightingale much more than Sully. Regardless of the fact that if the latter’s reputation struck fear into the hearts of macho newbies.


End file.
